Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Charlottesville, VA, USA. more »
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4 replies on “None of this explains why the sky is blue.”
I read an article a few weeks ago that posited blue and red absorption was due to the abundance of red and the energy of blue, leaving green not worth capturing. But this theory takes a completely different slant. Very interesting!
Interestingly, a counter opinion in the linked article is that green light was the opposite of what you read a few weeks ago:
Des Marais said an alternative explanation for why chlorophyll doesn’t absorb green light is that doing so might actually harm plants.
“That energy comes screaming in. It’s a two-edged sword,” Des Marais said in a telephone interview. “Yes, you get energy from it, but it’s like people getting 100 percent oxygen and getting poisoned. You can get too much of a good thing.”
Des Marais points to cyanobacteria, a photosynthesizing microbe with an ancient history, which lives just beneath the ocean surface in order to avoid the full brunt of the Sun.
“We see a lot of evidence of adaptation to get light levels down a bit,” Des Marais said. “I don’t know that there’s necessarily an evolutionary downside to not being at the peak of the solar spectrum.”
That’s a cool site. thanks. After reading this story, I browsed around and found an article from earlier this week detailing a new scientific study about how religion is good for kids. Maybe this is science and religion making peace. :-)
Waldo, that’s what intrigued me so much — they differed on the approach but also the underlying theory. I wonder if there is some nuance I’m not catching, or if one of the articles is just dead wrong. :-D
I read an article a few weeks ago that posited blue and red absorption was due to the abundance of red and the energy of blue, leaving green not worth capturing. But this theory takes a completely different slant. Very interesting!
Interestingly, a counter opinion in the linked article is that green light was the opposite of what you read a few weeks ago:
That’s a cool site. thanks. After reading this story, I browsed around and found an article from earlier this week detailing a new scientific study about how religion is good for kids. Maybe this is science and religion making peace. :-)
Waldo, that’s what intrigued me so much — they differed on the approach but also the underlying theory. I wonder if there is some nuance I’m not catching, or if one of the articles is just dead wrong. :-D